


Intervention

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: Ke'riel [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drinking, Drinking to Cope, Heavy Drinking, Intervention, M/M, Misunderstandings, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 14:26:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14875481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Modern AUAfter an unfortunate breakup, Kerhs finds himself drinking half to death to fight the pain of loneliness. U'riel watches from a distance, but after a time, he finds he can no longer stand to watch the man he loves torture himself in such a way.





	Intervention

“This is enough.” 

It was half past nine in the morning when U’riel finally lost his patience, and if Kerhs weren’t already inebriated, he might have been able to better process what was going on. As it was, the way that the other man came sweeping in shocked him enough to fall from the couch he was sitting on, jumping up at least a foot in the air before landing hard on his ass. U’riel took the opportunity presented to pull Kerhs’ flask from his grip and shove it down into the messanger bag he was wearing on his hip.

From his position on the floor, now, Kerhs blinked. “...U’riel?” he asked, but U’riel didn’t respond. Instead, he stalked smoothly across the room and tugged the curtains open, illuminating the room with the bright light of a dawning morning.

Kerhs groaned, loudly, and shoved his face into the closest couch cushion he could reach.

“You are killing yourself,” U’riel stated. His voice was loud, and thin. Much thinner than it usually was, than Kerhs remembered it being.

“Go away,” Kerhs mumbled into the safety of his cushion. He hadn’t seen U’riel since the day… the day… Ugh. His head hurt just thinking about it.

His fingers curled and uncurled themselves at his side, on the hand that normally held his father’s flask when he worked himself into one of these states. For a good minute, he actually managed to forget that anything was going on and just focused on the opening and closing of his hand.

It wasn’t to last, though. U’riel let out a heavy sigh and knelt beside him, and Kerhs was pulled forcefully back to the present.

“Go away,” he muttered again. “You don’t care. I don’t care. Nobody cares.” He wasn’t sure what he was talking about, anymore, not really, but he was certain it was important. “What’s caring, anyways? It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. I don’t matter. You don’t—“

Kerhs cut himself off abruptly at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, and he definitely didn’t  _ whine  _ at the sudden contact, but he also didn’t quite completely cease making sound, either. He  _ did,  _ however, make an attempt to shrug the hand away. He wasn’t very successful, given the firm grip and the fact that every movement felt like it was setting him aflame, but it felt good to at least  _ try. _

“Kerhs. Get up.” It was an order, not a request, but it wasn’t one that he was planning on following anytime soon.

“No.”

“ _Kerhs_.” If it had been any other time, Kerhs might have been compelled to listen. The plea that fell from U’riel’s lips, that took the form of his name, was obvious even to him in his addled state, but right now? Right now, he was about six sips short of finishing his flask off and needing to get up to refill it, and he wasn’t planning on moving until that was in order. Possibly sometime after it, if he managed to fall asleep where he was.

It didn’t seem like U’riel wanted to let him have his peace, though. “This is not  _ you _ , Kerhs,” he said quietly, still pleading with him in that strange, soft way that nobody else had ever managed around him.

“I’m me. This’s me,” Kerhs slurred. He finally managed to pull his head up from against the couch, and he squinted at U’riel, whose body was framed by the light from the window behind him.

Kerhs hated it. Hated how, even when he was supposed to hate U’riel, he was still having stupid thoughts about the way his hair looked with the sun shining on it.

Stupid sun. Stupid hair. Stupid  _ U’riel. _

“No. It is not.” U’riel shuffled closer to him, apparently taking his movement as a sign that Kerhs was welcoming him when it was really the exact opposite. “I know you, Kerhs. Or… I did, at a time. This is not  _ you.” _

“You don’t  _ know _ me,” Kerhs spat, and he felt a twisted sort of pride swell in his gut when the sudden venom in his voice caused U’riel to physically shift backwards again. “You don’t know anything  _ about  _ me.” He scrabbled a little for purchase against the fabric of the couch, attempting to stand, but gave up after a moment when his efforts proved futile. “Oh, you’re  _ real _ good at pretending, I’ll give you that. But you don’t know the first thing about me.” His knees. He managed to get on his knees, which meant he was mobile, even if —in a less drunken state— he should have been embarrassed to be crawling like a child, tottering towards U’riel.

Anger, bitterness, resentment… It all swirled in his chest, in his head, blinding him in hot shades of white and red. He couldn’t see straight, but he  _ could  _ see U’riel, still illuminated prettily in the sunlight. “You,” he continued, punctuating the thought with a poorly-aimed jab at U’riel’s chest. “—think you can just  _ march  _ in here after  _ months  _ of  _ nothing  _ and think you know everything. You don’t know anything!” He jabbed again, and this time, managed to make contact with U’riel’s chest, poking at it hard. “You  _ left  _ me. You left me and I couldn’t even do anything about it because I had no idea where you went! You  _ left _ , you— you—“ He was breathing hard, glaring at U’riel with everything he had. “—you  _ bastard,”  _ he hissed out.

They were too close, but U’riel hadn’t backed away. He’d let Kerhs push his way close, let him poke and prod and get angry. And it only made Kerhs angrier. “ _ Say something _ ,” he yelled, and U’riel finally moved. It was subtle, slight. He  _ flinched _ , and Kerhs felt that sick, sick satisfaction coil up inside of him again.

“You did not want me,” U’riel stated, and his voice was hollow. Like it was something he had said before, something that he was repeating for the hundredth time. Kerhs refused to give up his stance.

“You don’t know me,” he repeated bitterly in a mutter, lowering himself back onto the floor, off of his knees. Away from U’riel’s kneeling form.

“Kerhs…” There was an ache in U’riel’s voice, one that Kerhs had no idea what to do with. It wasn’t something he thought he could deal with sober, and it  _ definitely  _ wasn’t something he could handle smashed. He refused to look up, and U’riel sighed again. Without watching, Kerhs heard U’riel getting up, heard the definitive  _ clink  _ of his flask being set down on a table. “I am going to get you a glass of water,” he stated quietly, definitively, and it was only when he’d turned away to do just that that Kerhs finally lifted his head again, if only to watch him go. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love death and dying :) 
> 
> Kerhs belongs to @sarcastic-skeptic on tumblr  
> Kudos/comments are love; come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans


End file.
